salbrecher

cmon, everyone knows pitons are where it's at! The limited alpine climbs I have done I carried the above and several pitons. I really like pitons though.

-That feeling of condensation forming on your nostril hair below -10C when you breath in -Being really warm in a bivy bag with morning glow on your face -Rime ice on rock in the sun -Feeling of takeing your pack off at the end of a really long day -Grabbing a tree after a runout -First shower back from a trip

My dads not a climber but he's one heluva hiker and scrambler. He always took us out hiking and canoueing when we were really young. he took my brother and sister up to Garibaldi lake when my brother was 4 years old (made him walk the whole way with a pack). He tried to take me up the Black Tusk when I was 5 but I started crying at the base of the chimney because it was really blowing and my hands were cold . 2 years ago I went back up with him and he finally climbed it. This summer I took him up to Lake Lovely water for a week and climbed Alpha, Omega, Iota and Pelops. He's 55 and I can barely keep up with him (i'm 19). At the time of the trip he'd just finished the Kneeknacker (50km trail run with 7000ft elavation gain) for the 4th time and was in stellar shape. I'd just finished treeplanting for 3 months and was also pretty fit. It was pretty much 5 days of running up peaks really really fast. The best part of hiking with my Dad is seeing him still pushing his boundries at 55. Everytime i'd point and say "that's where we're going" he'd say things like (in a thick Austrian accent) "bloody hell Shtefan", "no bloody way Shtefan", or "You've GOT to be kidding Shtefan" yet each time we'd climb it he'd say "ya ya Shtefan it was not so bad" Funnest thing was teaching him to glissade. at first he was scared shitless but then he couldn't get going fast enough. Damn, this is making me homesick!

Were's a good place for a newbie ice climber to go to find some easy ice in the rockies this early in the season? I have Joe Josephsons guide but am a little overwhelmed by the number of chices to say the least. Stefan Albrecher

Slamin the skiis is on steep hills that you can barly go strait up or on switchbacks that are at a really steep angle.

To heavy . They weigh 200 grams. Leave a quarter liter of water out of your bottle for christ sake, You'll save sweating that 250ml from not having to work as hard.

Ski crampons are defanitly worth getting. Ski crampons help save the life of your bindings. slamming your skiis onto compact, late season, or steep snow to get skin grip prematurly wears away the fittings in your bindings causing them to weaken. Ski crampons eliminate this. all ski crampons i know of do not drag on the snow during forward motion either, contrary to what someone said. It's a lot faster to put on a ski crampon than put on regular ones and have to pack your skiis. They save energy to. When not using ski crampons on icy slopes it takes a lot of arm strength and lower body to tensing to prevent slipping. They're safer for steep icy traverses than with no ski crampons. I and people I ski with, very rarely carry regular crampons on ski trips anyway due to weight. Ski crampons are most usefull in steep forest approaches where you often find more compact snow, spring skiing, and on windblown ridges.

I've only ice climed a few times but i'm getting pretty stoked about this coming season, living a few hours from the Rockies and all! Lately i've been hanging from the mouldings above my doors and front pointing on the mouldings that run along the floor and it seems to me that climbing in AT boots takes less calf strength than my mountainering boots. Any reasons AT boots would not be as good as mountaineering boots for ice climbing? What boots do you climb in?

Climbing in the gym and building up finger and arm strength. I hate the indoor gym but i'll go for the workout.

Just one word, Mark TWIGHT <---Hero

Chestbeating Rapped off 2 weathered slings on a pile of small rock off the North peak of black tusk. I remember looking over the the north peak since having climbed the main peak and thinking WHO THE HELL WOULD RAP OFF THAT !

Climbed Most of Brown Sugar 5.7 in marble Canyon but got a LITTLE of route by taking a wrong turn at a "sickle" (what the hell is a sickle?!) and ended up leading 2 pitches of scary 10- slabs.

I'm about as skinny as they come and have no problem staying warm compared to my non skinny partners. I don't carry any more food on shorter trips and just eat higher fat food of the same weight on longer trips. If anything I find that if i eat enought food I'm even warmer than my non lanky partners because my metabolism's faster and that keeps me warmer.

1) Something up North with some skiing as well, maybe East ridge on Logan. 2) Sir Donald. 3) Climb more ice.

If you switch routes i'll be the one in a neon and black action suit.

I was reading in the Kamloops newspaper the other day that out of the hundredish people that were caught only one was fined and the rest were given warnings. We were planning on sneaking into the begbi bluffs area last weekend but the parks people were patrolling like mad. We saw about 4 parks vehicles in 2 hrs.

All you can eat, which route are you skiing? We'll be skiing the coleman on Saterday.

1)Black Tusks North peak 2)First Multipitch lead(s) (Diedre) 3)Taking my dad up to the Tantalus and climbing Alpha, Omega, and Pelops.

I just moved up to kamloops for school and want to get a headstart on finding some climbing partners. If you or someone you know lives near Kamloops and wants another climbing partner PM me, that'd be great . Stefan Albrecher

Probably about 11 hrs drive from seattle. Took us 9 from Vancouver.

I thought this story was going to end with her inviting you to the concert and then you guys getting married!

As we skiied by Princess last year I made some comment along the lines that it would sound kinda lame to say "man, we did some sick new route on "Princess" Mt" as opposed to "man, we did some sick route on...(insert scary peak name)" Nice pics and congrats on the route .

Eat , sleep , eat , sleep , eat , sleep . Waited a few days for the weather to break but it never happened. Ended up climbing Mt. Resplendant for no other reasonthan to say we climbed something. I couldn't even see the the guy on the other end of the rope and there were only 3 of us . A few days ago a group of 4 americans left for the North Face around 5 in the afternoon and some tourons said they saw them 3/4 of the way up around 9ish. Around midnight the weather crapped out and was blasting pretty hard and we were only camped below the dome. No sign that the guys had come down by the time we left today as the ranger said their registration form was still there. Hope they're just hanging out in a cave on top . Anyways the moral is the weather sucks on Robson! The last group up was on the 15th and the guy said it was his 12th time trying.

Thats what I said